


We Are Groot

by AnonEhouse



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Crack, Alternate Universe - Infinity War, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:13:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26935672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/AnonEhouse
Summary: You don't have to be human to have your heart broken when your kid is turned to ashes in your arms.Thanos is going to be very very sorry.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 28
Kudos: 155





	We Are Groot

**Author's Note:**

> Waiting for instacart & unable to do much on the computer because the Publix instacart page is a memory hog, and I was afraid I'd lose the page/connection/etc. if I did much of anything. So I looked around and found this pretty much complete one shot, which I guess I hadn't posted because it's so weird.
> 
> Then I said, 'wait, my readers KNOW I'm weird, it won't shock them'. So I gave it a few more words and am releasing it into the wild.

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

Tony was showing his protreege, Peter, how to shape shift into one of the swifter land-forms when Peter stopped, just stopped.

"Peter? Are you paying attention?" Tony asked.

"Sorry, Mssr Stark, I... I don't feel well..."

Tony watched in horror as bits flaked off of Peter, not in the normal way of shedding or molting any of their skin-turning shapes. "Peter! No, you're all right, you're fine!" Tony wrapped his arms around Peter, spread them out thin and fine like a glider-form, tried to hold Peter together, tried, but the dust... it just... sifted fine, finer than down, so fine it blew away.

Tony's mind was blank for a few moments, then he turned into his swiftest flying form and rose into the sky, holding back his grief because he had to find out WHY, to KNOW. He would cry later with his friends, with Peter's friends. This wasn't natural, wasn't possible. Peter was only a sapling, still stuck on plant forms, far too young to lose control of his shifting- and even then, when an ancient died, it was always slow, slow enough for everyone to gather and say their farewells.

Some new disease, mutating from a previously mild illness? But why wasn't Tony sick, then? He and Peter had been on a training retreat for weeks.

He beat his wings hard, heading back to his home moot. He looked around, vision sharp in this form, and saw others rising into the sky, movement in the trees, and flashes of scurrying below the trees, all heading in the same direction. 

He pressed on, sharpening his wings to increase his speed. It wasn't just Peter, then. This, Tony felt sure, was an attack, but it made no sense. When he fought, his opponents had something to gain, if only the glory of defeating him. Not that they ever had.

Aliens sometimes visited but their world wasn't rich in minerals or any luxury goods, and it wasn't suitable for anyone not of the people. Except for the nursery forests in widely scattered stable areas, you couldn't build anything and expect it to be there two leaf-turns later. They'd never had to worry about colonizers. They'd trade, sometimes, and occasionally someone would go off with the aliens for the adventure of it, but that was rare. Usually it'd be a sub-adult, like Peter, someone waiting to mature past plant stage, bored with lessons.

When Tony landed at the moot point, he changed in mid air to his favorite bipedal land-form to make it easier for his friends to recognize him. This was no time for games of shift-and-seek.

"Tony!" Rhodey called to him and Tony turned, feathers still sliding back into skin. "What the hell? I was instructing some young fliers and then... half of them..." Rhodey's voice shook. "Half of the group just... dissolved."

"Peter, too," Tony said. He looked around, counting heads. He and Rhodey were among the swiftest fliers in their moot, but there were others. "We need to send out messengers, find out if this is isolated."

Rhodey nodded. "Pepper's here, she's already sent out Pietro and Warren." He took a deep breath. "She told me... half the people who were at the moot..."

Tony frowned. "Exactly half?"

"Near enough. The more people come in, the more it looks that way."

"That... that's... something that precise, has to be deliberate. But it makes no sense. If it was an attack directed by intelligence, why would Peter be chosen and not me? He was a sapling, for God's sake, no threat to anyone." Tony felt himself reverting to primal, tall and strong, heartwood protected by long thorns.

Rhodey put a hand on Tony's shoulder, between thorns. "Keep it together, Tones. First we figure out what happened, then we can make a plan."

Tony knew Rhodey was right, but it was hard. He wanted to find whoever had done this, and kill them before they could strike again. Pepper might be next, or Rhodey.

Or... Tony said, "What if it's not just on Homeworld? We need to check... has anyone heard from Groot?"

"Last I heard," Rhodey said, "he was adventuring with a group of single shapers after he resprouted."

"Starting over is always a bitch," Tony remarked while he and Rhodey continued on to the off-world communications station. He was going to find who was behind this. If they could give back Peter and the rest of their people, Tony would be nice, and kill them quickly.

If not... well... Tony was a genius. He had a lot of shapes at his command, and plenty of patience. He'd lain dormant undersea at R'lyeh for a few thousand years on his own subadult sabbatical. He probably couldn't keep an alien alive that long, but he could make it feel like a thousand years of suffering.

If he couldn't save Peter, he would avenge him.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes. Tony was Cthulhu, until he got bored and went back to Homeworld.


End file.
